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Electronic conferencing and collaboration covers a wide variety of tools and techniques used to communicate in an instructional setting, between instructor and student (called point-to-point) and instructor (or student) and several others (called multi-point). Conferencing and collaboration are especially important in the on-line course environment, where instructors have to fight the social distancing that can occur when your students can't access the 'live' you. To insure a positive outcome in terms of learning and course satisfaction, you will want to consider what kinds of software technology you might employ to create social interaction opportunities with students you may never see or talk to 'face to face.' Teaching strategies for using the Internet are provided in the section Using Distance Education Technologies. Some of the most commonly used tools for on-line course communication include the following:

Listservs allow you and your students to participate in 'threaded' discussion, which means you can establish a topic for discussion and ask students to reply with comments which you can organize and access according to subject, date, and sender. Listservs are accessed through e-mail.

Bulletin boards are similar to listservs, but bulletin boards can be accessed through a Web browser. In bulletin board discussion groups, participants can share information by posting questions, answers and queries about the subject in a common message database that's available to all those who have access.

Chats allow students to interact with the instructor and each other synchronously, or in real time. Along with desktop conferencing, chats are the closest thing to a traditional classroom meeting. The instructor can moderate the flow of a class discussion, and students can also use chats for team projects.

Desktop conferencing applications let you communicate with other participants in real time via text, audio and/or video from your own computer.  Net Meeting, for PCs only, is one example of this application. Videoconferencing over the Internet, also known as IP videoconferencing or H.323 (for the official standard for IP videoconferencing), can also be done through high-quality videoconferencing systems such as PictureTel or Polycom.

Collaboration tools allow participants to collaborate in a shared space on a computer screen, as well as transfer files, and even share applications. The most commonly used collaboration tools include the following:

Electronic white boards - Draw, import and export graphics in real time with another participant on the white board window.

Collaborative browsing - Direct another party to a specific Web page during a desktop conferencing session. As you follow links around the Web, your participant's browser moves to the same location.

Application sharing - Share a file with your participants, where you can either control the file yourself, or you can authorize another participant to control the application you are both working on.

File exchange - Exchange application files, images, and data with another party or parties during desktop conferencing as an alternative to sharing files via e-mail attachments or FTP.

Learn more about using Internet technologies in your Web-based course.